Another Gifted Generous Crone - June 14, 2011

I called Tina Rousselot, who works in oils and oil pastel studies for her color field minimalist works, to see if she would show me her oil pastel technique and she immediately and enthusiastically said yes. So, today I spent time with her as she showed me by having everything set up and walking through the process with me doing it, her demonstrating at key moments, and color dancing before my eyes. She also showed me some new work for an upcoming show, Chroma,  which is full of color, life, light, and spirit. See her work at http://www.tinarousselot.com.

Following this adventure, I repaired straight to the studio, and rubbed oil pastel for the evening, burnishing, stroking, rubbing and looking, looking, in that soothing, stimulating, exuberant, relaxed way that occurs in that peaceful place. This particular technique produces very subtle colors and layering.

As I walked into the house at late dusk with lower sky glowing cool, luminous blue and overhead clouds rich purples and grey blues the colors were unnaturally  intense and alive. I had to climb on the picnic table to get as high as possible to see more sky. This lasted a few minutes until normal vision returned. It's that magic of seeing color so intensely after having been immersed in color work. I'd been staring very closely at spring green and deep purple/red violet which made the blues in the sky just wild. Another amazement and deep gratitude for this fine day and life.